How to Use detention in a Sentence

detention

noun
  • The jail is only used for brief detentions.
  • He got detention for being late to class.
  • They both got three detentions this year.
  • The detention of the two activists is a sign of the times.
    Anna Gordon, TIME, 23 Oct. 2023
  • The third bit, of course, leans into a school/detention joke.
    Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 31 Mar. 2023
  • The detention had been extended in August through at least Nov. 30, the press service of the court said at the time.
    Kevin Shalvey, ABC News, 27 Nov. 2023
  • Jackson noted that the All-Star Game would take place on the 143rd day of Griner’s detention.
    New York Times, 7 July 2022
  • While held in detention there for a month and a half, she was given only a bit of bread to eat each day.
    Kate Morrissey, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Feb. 2022
  • The pair have not talked for the entirety of Griner’s detention in Russia.
    Chloe Peterson, The Arizona Republic, 27 June 2022
  • My team had been told I’d been transferred from detention but didn’t know when or where.
    Brittney Griner, TIME, 3 May 2024
  • That youth is due back in court for a detention hearing on May 15 and also may be tried as an adult.
    Robert A. Cronkleton, Kansas City Star, 3 May 2024
  • The judge did not make a ruling on their detention Friday.
    Byluke Barr, ABC News, 8 Apr. 2022
  • And now Guo will spend the night in jail, after pleading not guilty and consenting to detention.
    Bob Van Voris, Fortune, 16 Mar. 2023
  • Why is there such a strong reaction to Khan’s detention?
    Riazat Butt, Chicago Tribune, 11 May 2023
  • In 2016, Mitchell ended up at the Vel Phillips detention center after a fight.
    Talis Shelbourne, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1 June 2022
  • Every old farm field, railroad right of way, and shopping center detention basin is chock full of the stinky trees.
    Paul Cappiello, The Courier-Journal, 22 Mar. 2024
  • His detention of about two years was the longest for an American.
    Time, 19 July 2023
  • He had been moved to the Lauderdale County detention center to await trial for the murder charge.
    Victoria Albert, CBS News, 5 May 2022
  • Up to 1 million Uyghurs are being held in detention camps in the Xinjiang region.
    Matt Burgess, Wired, 2 Feb. 2022
  • In the early years of the detention operation, some of the youngest prisoners were teenagers.
    Carol Rosenberg, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2025
  • At least two journalists have been killed and others tortured while in detention, the group said.
    Arkansas Online, 4 Feb. 2022
  • The Lee brothers are still in detention, but Beaufort and Little were released on bond.
    Mike Mavredakis, Hartford Courant, 1 July 2022
  • Brindley asked that his client to be sent to home detention for an unspecified amount of time until the threat is gone.
    Christie D’zurilla, Los Angeles Times, 18 June 2025
  • The two staffers may be a combination of one deputy and one detention deputy, but never two unarmed deputies.
    Sarah Nelson, The Indianapolis Star, 30 Aug. 2023
  • The protests in Iran, sparked by the Sept. 16 death of a 22-year-old woman after her detention by the country’s morality police, weigh heavy on her.
    Robert Scheer, The Indianapolis Star, 5 Dec. 2022
  • More than a million have been sent to detention centers, forced to denounce Islam and swear fealty to Xi and the party.
    Jon Gambrell, ajc, 9 Dec. 2022
  • His wife, Vida, also a U.S. citizen, was in Iran at the time of his detention and was barred from leaving the country.
    Farnaz Fassihi, New York Times, 19 Sep. 2023
  • By then the family had been transferred to a detention facility in Texas, where the case will be heard.
    Susan Miller, USA Today, 19 June 2025
  • While immigration detentions and other operations at the facility will continue as the legal process moves ahead, the question of who is in charge at the center is important.
    Greg Allen, NPR, 14 Aug. 2025
  • Jackson has been ordered detained, and Wallace and Hughes-Murchison will have detention hearings later this week, prosecutors said.
    Thao Nguyen, USA Today, 14 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'detention.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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